Residential hotels safe haven for criminals

Staff Correspondent: Criminals are using residential hotels as a safe haven for committing various types of crimes hiding their real identities.
Crimes ranging from drug trade, immoral activities and gambling to cheating and murder are taking place in residential hotels in various parts of the country, including the capital.
It is alleged that criminals rent rooms at residential hotels or guesthouses by using fake names, addresses and mobile phone numbers. They do plan of various crimes, including drug business, murder and extortion. They also choose hotel rooms as a safe place of murder and rape.
Criminals sometimes lure girls into going to residential hotels, take their pictures in the nude and later blackmail them by showing their obscene pictures.
On Wednesday night, police recovered the throat-slit body of a female doctor named JannatulNayemSiddiqa, 27, from a residential hotel in the capital.
The victim enrolled for gynaecology training at Dhaka Medical College Hospital on completion of her MBBS course from Dhaka Community Medical College.
Officer-in-charge of Kalabagan Police Station MdSaiful Islam said they recovered the body of the female doctor from a residential hotel in Panthapath around 9:30pm after receiving information.
“The body of JannatulNayeem was recovered from the bed of room No. 305 on the fourth floor of the hotel with her throat slit. The body bore multiple injury marks,” he said.
“JannatulNayeem went to the residential hotel along with a man named Rezaul Karim Reza, posing as husband and wife. It’s suspected that the doctor’s boyfriend fled after killing her,” the OC added.
Meanwhile, Reza was arrested from Chattogram on Thursday night. Besides, the hotel manager was detained for interrogation, he said.
On July 7, police recovered the body of a young woman from a resort in Kalatali of Cox’s Bazar.
After recovering the body, police said both hands of the girl were tied with a piece of cloth. The person who went to the hotel with the young woman identifying him as her husband killed her and ran away.
However, the hotel authorities said their names and identities were not recorded in the hotel register.
On August 2, a student of North South University (NSU) was found dead in a hotel in Bogura.
Police said Tanvirul Islam alias Aqib, 24, a 4th-year student of the university, checked in at Shyamoli Hotel on August 1.
The hotel staff informed the law enforcement as Aqib did not respond to repeated knocks on the door the following day.
“As we entered the room breaking open the door, we found the body hanging from the ceiling of the hotel room. He might have committed suicide,” said Salim Reza, officer-in-charge of BoguraSadar Police Station.
Many people fear that immoral activities and murder will increase several times as it becomes easier to rent a room in a residential hotel even without providing information.
On July 28, detectives arrested 10 school-college students as they engaged in immoral activities at Evening Touch Hotel in Pabna.
OC of Pabna district Detective Branch of police Anwar Hossain said most of the hotels in the town are running these businesses with high hourly contractual rent. It is very easy for school and college students to get involved in immoral activities. Few months ago, Evening Touch Residential Hotel-2 was also raided and several youths were arrested.
He said residential hotels have become safe havens for unethical activities. Earlier on July 13, 11 people, including college-university students and housewives, were arrested from Dream Palace in Pabna.
It is must to take permission from the district administration to run a residential hotel. But most of the low-priced residential hotel are illegal and have no approval from the district administration.
A drug racket had long been dealing in narcotics at a residential hotel at Vatara in the capital. Dhaka Metro North unit of the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) arrested five persons in a raid on the residential hotel on April 6 last on the basis of secret information.
Mehedi Hasan, assistant director of DNC Dhaka Metro North, said they had a tip-off that a racket had been doing Yaba business for long in the residential hotel called Hotel New Padma International. “Based on the information, we conducted a drive at the hotel when five members of the gang, including the hotel owner and manager, were arrested. A total of 11,300 Yaba tablets were seized from the detainees.”
In September 2017, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) issued several instructions for the residential hotels in the capital after a militant blew himself up at Hotel Olio International at Panthapath close to Bangabandhu Memorial Museum on August 15, 2017.
The instructions included keeping photos of boarders along with their detailed information and active mobile phone numbers and installing archways with metal detectors for scanning everyone while entering hotels. DMP also directed the hotels to search boarders every time they enter the hotels, scan bags and luggage, keep CCTV cameras active round the clock and scan boarders’vehicles.
But the residential hotels have not followed the directions as many incidents are taking place one after another.
MdKamruzzaman, assistant inspector general (Media and Public Relations) of the Police Headquarters, told, “We’ve seen that many people use fake identity while checking in at residential hotels. So, it’s the responsibility of the hotel authorities to collect information of the boarders properly. If possible, they should verify that information.”
“Moral values are the key components of a person’s character. We need to raise awareness among the people about moral values,” he added.